2022 LHSAA State Wrestling Championships
February 11th-12th 2022
Raising Cane's River Center

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Guillory adds one more Bearcat title for emphasis
LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament
Division III, 285 Pounds
March 153rd, 2022 | Written by: CAT




Seeding Synopsis Early Championship Rounds Quarterfinals Semifinals Consolation Rounds 3rd and 5th Finals

Place 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Podium
Name Anphrony Guillory Darnell Taylor Nicholas Dalfares Ethyn Vigneaux Ryan Fobbs Christian Speight
School Basile Lake Charles
College Prep
John Curtis Kaplan Erath Evangel
Seed 1 3 2 5 6
Class 12 12 11 11 10 8
Final Record* 29-4 10-1 13-5 15-8 13-9 26-4

*    Records include all wins but only losses to Louisiana wrestlers.  Forfeits and defaults are not counted.

In at least nine articles over four years, I thought I was correcting an error that went unnoticed by the Basile coaching staff, Basile team members, TrackWrestling, other schools’ coaches, his friends and his family, when I wrote “Anthony” whenever I saw “Anphrony.”  Please find my photograph in the Oxford English Dictionary under “arrogance.”  (Actually, the photo was there well before 2018.)  This season someone finally showed me the error of my ways.  State champions deserve better!

Seeding Synopsis

In 2022 Basile senior Anphrony Guillory entered his fifth LHSAA State Wrestling Championships tournament.  In 2018 he had the pleasure of a first-round match against Evangel’s top-seeded Datremecious White, the runner-up that season but afterward a two-time state champion.  His first consolation round match was against Church Point’s Tony Gibson, a 2020 runner-up.  Gibson would be a recurring motif in Guillory’s state championships chronicles.  He would meet the Church Point wrestler four times, and lose four times, from 2018-2020.  Another motif would be John Drake of John Curtis.  In 2019 Guillory ascended to the consolation finals (vs. Gibson, of course) via a medical forfeit from Drake.  Drake did not forget that.  In 2020 Drake kept Guillory from reaching the medal rounds, and in 2021 Drake, on his way to a state championship, defeated the fifth-seeded Guillory in the semifinals, after Guillory defeated the fourth-seed.  After four years of state championship competition, Guillory had a fourth and a fifth-place medal.  He had a record of 3-8 in actual matches, with two forfeits.  Four of those losses were to Gibson.  The other three, to White and Drake, at least came from future state champions.  What would 2022 have in store for the Bearcat senior?

Well, it had a spot as the #1 seed to start.  He had defeated #2 Nicholas Dalfares of Curtis and #5 Ethyn Vigneaux of Kaplan (D3 4th) at the Brusly Invitational.  Dalfares had defeated Erath’s Ryan Fobbs, and nobody knew anything about #3 Dalfares Taylor of Lake Charles College Prep, aside from that the senior was 7-0 and had a win over Vigneaux.  Erath’s Ryan Fobbs was seeded fourth, as he and Vigneaux split during the season, which pushed Taylor to #3.

Guillory placed second at the Jacob McMillan and the Trey Culotta, at which he defeated Division I state entrants Chaney Phillips of Brother Martin, Tayvon Patterson of Airline (4th in DI) and Division III’s Tim Donelon of De la Salle.  Then he won the Brusly Invitational, placed third at the Louisiana Classic (losing to Jesuit’s Spencer Lanosga) but defeating Rayne's Tre`Von Williams.  Williams returned the favor in the Ken Cole consolation finals, where Guillory was also sent to the consolation rounds by Lanosga.  He then won the Lafayette Metro championship.  During the season he defeated Chalmette's Bryant Breska (D1 3rd) and Catholic's David Russell (D1 5th), as well as Shaw's Raymond Howard (D2 2nd).

Dalfares was 9-4 entering the tournament and had a second-place finish at the Brusly Invitational.  But he had the win over Fobbs, and that earned him a #2 seed.  Plus, six of those wins, and none of his losses aside from the one to Guillory, were against Division III competition.

As mentioned earlier, not much was known about Lake Charles Prep's senior Darnell Taylor.  He was 7-0 upon entering the state championships.  He won the Rayne Invitational with wins over John Simmons, Jr. of Northside, Keagan Trimm of Sulphur and Vigneaux.  Fobbs split matches with Vigneaux, so Charles was seeded third and Fobbs fourth.  Vigneaux was seeded fifth because he had lost to St. Thomas More's Holden Matthews, whereas Fobbs defeated Matthews.

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Quarterfinals

In their tie-breaking match, Vigneaux prevailed against Fobbs 3-2 TB-1.  The hitherto little-known entity called Taylor defeated a fellow senior from Bossier in 0:32 in his first match, and then spent 5:17 to pin a pesky eighth-grader from Evangel, Christian Speight.

(1) Anphrony Guillory (BAS) pinned Ben So (HAY)in 1:39
(5) Ethyn Vigneayx (KAP) defeated (4) Ryan Fobbs (ERT) 3-2 TB-1
(3) Darnell Taylor (LCCP) pinned (6) Christian Speight (EVA) in 5:17
(2) Nicholas Dalfares (JC) pinned (7) Keigan Fleming (BRU) in 5:42

Semifinals

Guillory finally made it to a state finals match after a hard 6-1 win over Vigneaux.

Taylor went back to his basics, which meant an early fall, over #2 Dalfares to advance to the finals.

(1) Anphrony Guillory (BAS) defeated (5) Ethyn Vigneaux (KAP) 6-1
(3) Darnell Taylor (LCCP) pinned (2) Nicholas Dalfares (JC) in 0:48

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Championship Consolation Rounds

Dalfares and Vigneaux put on a show, if one wants to call a 1-1 tie after regulation a show.  But it meant a Sudden Victory round, if one wants to call it “Sudden,” as Dalfares scored a match-winning takedown with six seconds remaining before a tie-breaker period would have started.  A match won with only six seconds remaining in a Sudden Victory round, no matter what preceded it, is dramatic.

The Evangel middle-school entrant did well to place as he was seeded, sixth.  After taking Taylor into the third round in the quarterfinals, he defeated a junior and a senior before falling to Vigneaux in the CSFs and then Fobbs in the match for fifth.

(2) Nicholas Dalfares (JC) defeated (5) Ethyn Vigneaux (KAP) 3-1 SV to place 3rd
(4) Ryan Fobbs (ERT) pinned (6) Christian Speight (EVA) in 1:46 to place 5th

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Finals

The seniors put on a very entertaining finals match.  Taylor scored first with an escape in the second period, but Guillory rebounded in the third period with an escape and a takedown in the first minute.  Taylor escaped with 50 seconds remaining and came awfully close to a takedown at the end.  The attempt was close enough for the officials to meet for a couple of minutes to discuss it before determining Taylor did not gain control.  After five years, Guillory had his title.

(1) Anphrony Guillory (BAS) defeated (3) Darnell Taylor (LCCP) 3-2

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